We have Exchange 2010 on a local Server (VM on vSphere) and are looking for the best / cost effective method for email redundancy in the Cloud. This is a small company, so cost is an issue but email is very important. Can we make Exchange redundant using Exchange Online? Can we purcahse a Cloud Server and configure failover? What are the steps needed? Thanks!

You can purchase your own cloud server, yes, but I can't understand how that would save you money. Also, I would strongly discourage trying to configure a high availability solution across a wide area network because I don't think you will be pleased with the result. It doesn't work well because Windows Clustering, which is under the DAG design, is not designed for failover over a WAN. You will likely have failed DAGs and possibly database corruption.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

On Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:47:50 +0000, Ed Crowley wrote: > > >You can purchase your own cloud server, yes, but I can't understand how that would save you money. Also, I would strongly discourage trying to configure a high availability solution across a wide area network because I don't think you will be pleased with the result. It doesn't work well because Windows Clustering, which is under the DAG design, is not designed for failover over a WAN. You will likely have failed DAGs and possibly database corruption. Hmmm . . . small company, cost effective (meaning we don't want to spend a lot of money -- not on hardware, design, maintenance, administration, etc.), and redundancy. Sounds like Office 365 would be the least expensive choice overall. Let someone else buy the hardware, do the patching, install the upgrades, etc. What you're left with is the administration. If you don't mind your users having two accounts (one for e-mail and the other for whatever you do with AD inside your network) you won't even need ADFS or directory synchronization! --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Natch, but that wasn't what he asked for.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

On Fri, 14 Sep 2012 23:24:02 +0000, Ed Crowley wrote: >Natch, but that wasn't what he asked for. Just reading between the lines, I guess. --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Hmmm . . . small company, cost effective (meaning we don't want to spend a lot of money -- not on hardware, design, maintenance, administration, etc.), and redundancy. Sounds like Office 365 would be the least expensive choice overall. Let someone else buy the hardware, do the patching, install the upgrades, etc. What you're left with is the administration. If you don't mind your users having two accounts (one for e-mail and the other for whatever you do with AD inside your network) you won't even need ADFS or directory synchronization! Is there a way to sync our current Exchange with Office 365, or would it have to start from scratch?

You can connect your current Exchange to Office 365, but there's no support for synching mailboxes. They have to be on one side or the other. Office 365 will not function as a DAG member in your organization. And there is no support in Office 365 for public folders.Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."